National Republican., 1887-07-30
The Advantages OF n Home Market

Some of the farmers OF the south have
learned the advantages of home market.
They see that to raise cotton or tobacco,
corn or wheat, and have to depend for con-
sumers at distance for the single crop, Is
not only Improbable, but unsafe. Toe
crop may meet with some accident that the
best management and greatest care could
not prevent, In which event the farm pays
nothing.
In community that is wholly agricul-
tural, there are no consumers for the
product Of the farm, each one raising what
he consumes and all producing the same
articles, both for consumption and sale,
the only consumers being the few proies
sional and business men Of the community.
No country can be prosperous where such
conditions exist.
South OF the Potomac, the Ohio, and the
lower Missouri has been in the past an a.
most exclusively agricultural country, aud
the products have been corn, wheht, TO
bacco, hemp, cotton, sugar, and rice, anda
portion Of the area named nearest the rivers
which bound 1t on the north, few horses,
cattle, and hogs, Hemp, cotton, sug,r,
aud tobacco, with the stock named, have
been the money producing crops, the bulk
Of the others being consumed by the pro
ducers.
For all these crops consumers had to be
sought away from home, and in any section
or on any farm where there was failure
there was distress. Almost every farmer
of the least forethought raised hogs for his
own use, chickens In abundance, eggs Ia
plenty, butter, milk, fruit, so that there
was no lack Of food, but II there was no
cotton or tobacco or hemp or cattle to sell,
there twas no money to buy coffee, tea,
sugar, clothing, farming utensils, or any
thing else not produced on the farm.
Each one OF these farmers could produce
greater amount Of fruit, milk, butter,
eggs, chickens, or hogs and sheep than he
did for his own use, at very little additional
expense or labor, but It was no use to do
20 because every other farmer In the neigh
Borhood did the same, and no one wante
TO buy.
Wherever In the south mining or IN lnu-
featuring work was commenced the conli-
tions changed at once. The men who
worked in mines or factories raised nothing
to eat. They had to buy all that they anl
their families consumed. The farmers sup
piled them, getting good prices anl cash
in hand, for al the products OF the garden
farm, orchard, and dairy, with demlnd
for more than was produced. This wls a
home market.
Another change came. If they do not
nj
dlately after the inception Of mining and
manufacturing enterprises. These EXTENDED
s'the home market" for all products to
neighboring towns and cities. The farmer
could sell at good prices all he couli raise.
That meant prosperity for him. The main
crop might fail aud still he was doing well
AS We started out by saying "some OF
the farmers of the south have learned the
advantages of home Market" and they
have also learned that the money invested
and the workingmen employed in mines
and factories In this country must be pre-
tected against the competition Of che iper
capital and lower priced labor In oth:I
countries, or there will be no factories built
or mines opened. They have learned thai
even II these were, at the reduced wages
made necessary by European competition
the workingmen would have no money tc
buy anything but the bare neces3arieS o.
life, ard could not be the liberal customer:
they now are to the food producers.
And these farmers have learned an
other thing equally important, aul thai
is, that the home manufactured artl-
cles they now purchase, from factories
nurtured by high tariffs, are not only
better but cheaper than tho imported
goods they formerly bought, when free
trade permitted foreign countries to die
tate, not only the style, but the price OF all
our goods. They have looked over the
price lists of 1859 and lSG0-the "storC
hills" Of the goods they or their fathers
made in those days for farm utensils, house
hold goods, building materials, clothing
aud everything they have to purchase
they have compared them with the price,
paid now, and find that all of these art
clcs, without exception, are cheaper thau